(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a workflow system and, more particularly, to a workflow server and work flow system control method for allowing another designated user to process a business work item when a user in charge is absent.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A workflow system is a computer network system developed for efficiently processing office work to which a plurality of people are related in a time sequence manner. By predefining the flow of each work item generated in the form of an electronic document in office work, a work item processed by a client terminal is automatically transferred to the persons in charge one after another on the downstream side of the work flow.
The workflow system comprises, for example, a plurality of client terminals connected to each other via a communication network such as a LAN, and a workflow server for communicating with each of the client terminals via the communication network. The work (business process) is predefined in a process management table of the workflow server. “Work” in the specification denotes office work such as ordering of materials and settlement of travel expenses. The work includes processes such as proposal, examination, and approval allocated to the user or application in each client terminal.
A new work item (electronic document) created by a client terminal or a work item which is transferred from another user and additionally processed by a client terminal is automatically sent to a person in charge in the next step of the workflow under the control of the workflow server.
In the specification, identification of each work in a workflow system is defined as “process ID”, each electronic document generated in work is defined as a “work item” and each of a series of processing steps of the workflow is defined as a “node”. When an individual is designated as the destination of the work item at each node, the individual is referred to as “user”. When a group consisting of a plurality of users having the same role is designated as a unit and a work item is transferred to one of the plurality of members belonging to the group, it is referred to as “role”.
In the workflow system, when the user (user in charge) as the destination of a work item is absent due to business trip, holiday, or the like, it is desirable to enable the work item to be processed by another user (substitute) in order to avoid a delay in the work.
In a conventional workflow system which enables a work item to be processed by a substitute user, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 10-177603, by the configuration described hereinafter, each user designates a substitute user for each work item and a work item is automatically distributed to the substitute user when the user in charge is absent.
In the conventional system, a workflow server has a process management table, a role management table, and a user management table. The process management table defines, for each of nodes constructing a business process, role ID, type of initial destination for designating either the user or role as the first destination of a work item, and type of destination at the time of a failure for designating either the user or role as the next destination when the transmission of the work item to the initial destination fails. The role management table defines IDs of users belonging to each role ID. The user management table stores information indicating whether or not a work item can be accepted every user ID. Each user designates whether work items can be accepted by his/her receiving tray, and a substitute user who should process a work item for the user in the user management table in correspondence with the role ID.
When a transition command with respect to a processed work item is received from a client terminal, the workflow server refers to a record of the next node of a process corresponding to the work item in the process management table. When “role” is designated as the type of the initial destination, the work item is transmitted to the corresponding role. When “user” is designated as the type of the initial destination, the workflow server refers to the role management table corresponding to the role ID defined in the record and, on the basis of the first user ID defined in the role management table, refers to the corresponding user management table.
When the status of accepting the work item with respect to the role ID is “acceptable” in the user management table, the work item is sent to the user in charge specified by the user ID. When the accepting status is “unacceptable” and substitute ID is designated, the user management table of the substitute user is referred to and the accepting status of the substitute user regarding the role ID is checked. When the receiving status of the substitute user is “acceptable”, the work item is sent to the substitute user.
If the first user does not designate a substitute user in the user management table or if the accepting status of the designated substitute user is “unacceptable”, the initial sending of the work item fails. In this case, the workflow server determines the next destination in accordance with “destination at the time of a failure” in the process management table. When the destination at the time of a failure is “role”, the work item is sent to the role. In the case of “user”, a process similar to that of the first user is performed to the next user defined in the role management table.